People with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) have a significantly elevated risk of dying from Clostridium difficile infection, according to a recent study.

Researchers at Albert Einstein School of Medicine's Jacobi Medical Center in New York City compared outcomes of 104 ESRD patients on dialysis with a 300-person control group. They found those in the ESRD group had a C. diff-related mortality rate of 3.8%, while the other group's rate was 1.46%. ESRD patients were also more likely to have a relapse of severe C. diff infection within two months.

Combinining metronidazole and oral or rectal vancomycin was more effective than monotherapy drug treatment for the ESRD patients with C. diff, the researchers said. The monotherapy was associated with increased chances of a relapse, they found.

The research was released at the National Kidney Foundation 2013 Spring Clinical Meetings, held last week in Orlando, FL.

While long-term care professionals have at least two more weeks to agonize over the fate of a bill that would permanently repeal the current Medicare physicians funding formula, a host of other key funding "extenders" set to expire also hang in the balance.

Nearly four months into the year, a 2015 calendar sporting nude photographs of the residents of Pleasant Pointe Assisted Living in Akron, OH, are still flying out the door — so much so that a second printing was ordered.